That time has officially arrived: Week 10 of the fall semester at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The time is that infamous one with which all students are quite familiar. I am referring to the beginning of burnout. It is like my mind and will are an automobile out on the open road of the semester. The first mile markers start a bit slow, easy on me as the semester begins to pick up speed from a lazy summer. Then this fine piece of academic craftsmanship makes the shift up into second, then third, and finally fourth gear, steadily running the road week after week. Then it happens–the gas tank begins to get a little lower than you’d expected, and before you know it, you’re sputtering trying to make it to the next station before you stop for good.
This is my life. This semester has been unique from all others, because it’s the first semester where I don’t have a class that just fires me up. Don’t get me wrong, my classes are not really dull but there is not that one class that I eagerly anticipate each week. You people in graduate school know what I’m talking about. It’s the time when you really just don’t want to do anything constructive, but your day planner and the course syllabi disagree. It’s just time to have to walk waist-deep in the mire of academia, all the while remembering that in this bizarro world you are actually paying your institution to inflict such pain upon you! Twisted.
So here’s to you, Mr. Sputtering Semester. You may be breaking down and taking my will to continue with you, but you shall not be defeated. With a quick top-off of Thanksgiving turkey, I will be around to reach the checkered flag. In the immortal words of Ricky Bobby, “It’s time for a little Shake ‘n Bake!“
